posted August 07, 2009 06:19 PM         

any ways he said that according to a Dr. Tancredi speaking at the IAU conference in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, there are are 14 certain dwarf planets, 8 probable, 19 unclear. He's using a diameter of over 450 km. It's back to size.

so an increase of 5 to 14.

currently the dwarf planets are Eris,Pluto,Makemake,Haumea,and Ceres.
9 more will be added to that list.

some of the dwarf planets don't have official names yet. It seems like by the time the conference is over, names will be released for unnamed dwarf planets.

Raymond

------------------
“It is absolutely the perfect name,” Dr. Brown said, given the continuing discord among astronomers and the public over whether Pluto should have retained its planetary status.

In mythology, Eris ignited discord that led to the Trojan War.

posted August 07, 2009 10:47 PM         

Sedna,Orcus,Quaoar,Varuna are larger than Ceres which is already classed as dwarf planet,and so they will definitely be classed as dwarf planets. Ixion is slightly smaller than Ceres,and it will be classed as dwarf planet.

------------------
“It is absolutely the perfect name,” Dr. Brown said, given the continuing discord among astronomers and the public over whether Pluto should have retained its planetary status.

In mythology, Eris ignited discord that led to the Trojan War.

posted August 07, 2009 11:39 PM         

the explanation of why Pluto doesn't meet the criteria makes a lot of sense.

Pluto got the same treatment Ceres got. Ceres was classed as planet for half a century and then it got demoted after they realized that it was not a planet but a new type of object.

Now Pluto and Ceres are equals as dwarf planets thanks to the discovery of Eris which forced astronomers to come up with a definition of a planet which led to the destruction of the old system and creation of a new system. redefining,challenge the status quo seems like good keywords for Eris.

we just have more knowledge of the solar system and know that solar system doesn't end with Pluto and that there are objects that orbit like Pluto and many others that orbit beyond Pluto. We know that Chiron is not from outside our solar system, and that it has its roots in the kuiper belt. We now know that Chiron is not alone as a centaur. There are over 40 centaurs discovered.

We now know why Pluto's orbit is far more eccentric and inclined than the other planets. After the discovery of the kuiper belt and the discoveries of plutinos, we now know that Pluto's orbit is much different because it's a kuiper belt object and plutino.

the following is from Dr. Michael Brown, the co-discoverer of Eris and other large transneptunians

"Here are some of the issues that have come up:
What about Pluto crossing Neptune's orbit?
Partly this issue has come up from an incorrect statement in an AP wire story which says that Pluto is autmatically disqualified because it crosses the orbit of Neptune. Untrue. Pluto is disqualified because it is in the Kuiper belt but has not cleared out the Kuiper belt nor accumulated most of the mass in the asteroid belt, nor does it dominante the Kuiper belt. Pluto is part of a vast population and is rightly classified with that population where it belongs.
But surely this means Neptune has not cleared out Pluto and thus is not a planet, right? No. The problem here is simply with the hasty way in which the final definition was drafted, not with the concept, which is quite solid. And the concept is more important than a lawyerly reading of the definition. Neptune has a mass more than 8000 times greater than that of Pluto, and, in fact, totally dominates Pluto's region of the Kuiper belt. Much of the material in the Kuiper belt has indeed been tossed aside or accumulated by Neptune, but a very special region ("the Plutinos") have actually been captured by Neptune instead. We now know that Neptune formed much closer to the sun than where it was today, and, as Neptune moved out, it pushed these Plutinos out with it while forcing them into a peculariar orbit where they orbit the sun precisely twice for every three orbits of Neptune. Pluto is the largest of the Plutinos, and it and the others only exist where they do because of the dominance of Neptune. While a lawyer could make a case that Pluto has not been cleared by Neptune, the concept and intent of the definition is sound, and Neptune's total domination of Pluto's dynamics is actually an excellent demonstration of precisely the concept the definition is meant to convey."
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/eightplanets/

if Pluto is put back on the map as a planet, then why not Ceres get its planethood back too. It was classed as a planet before Neptune was discovered.

removing Pluto from planethood doesn't take away Pluto's astrological significance. It just opens the doors to consider that Pluto's fellow transneptunians also have significant astrological influences. Size doesn't really matter either. After all, astrologers think of Pluto as very powerful (the planet of power) even though it is so much smaller than our Moon....not even coming close to the size of our Earth. There can be objects smaller than Pluto that are even more powerful. Pluto doesn't have the monopoly on power,transformation,intensity,rebirth,resurrection,elimination,and other things assigned to Pluto....not with thousands of transneptunians exist in the solar system....not with the existence of quite a few big ones....2 that comes close to Pluto's size (Makemake and Haumea) and 1 that is even larger (Eris).

I say that the door of 21st Century Astrology has been opened with the discovery of the kuiper belt in 1992 and the discoveries of large Kuiper belt objects starting in 2000.

Raymond

------------------
“It is absolutely the perfect name,” Dr. Brown said, given the continuing discord among astronomers and the public over whether Pluto should have retained its planetary status.

In mythology, Eris ignited discord that led to the Trojan War.

posted August 08, 2009 12:48 AM         

?

posted August 08, 2009 01:13 AM         

minor planet number 1,the first asteroid,Ceres was discovered in 1801.
minor planet number 2,the 2nd asteroid,Pallas was discovered in 1802.
minor planet number 3,the 3rd asteroid,Juno was discovered in 1804
minor planet number 4,the 4th asteroid,Vesta was discovered in 1807

so they were discovered very close together.

so it could hard to isolate what Ceres,Pallas,Juno,and Vesta influenced

it wasn't until 1845, minor planet number 5,fifth asteroid, Astraea was discovered.

after that, thousands of asteroids were discovered. The discovery of Astraea was the starting point for the eventual demotion of the Ceres,Pallas,Juno,Vesta from planet to minor planet.

Of course, Ceres got a promotion to dwarf planet in 2006 along with Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet with Eris being classed as dwarf planet after being shortly considered the 10th planet of the solar system.

Both Pallas and Vesta are dwarf planet candidates because they are round and they are over 450 km in diameter. Both are over 500 km in diameter. Pallas is 544 km in diameter,and Vesta is 530 km in diameter. Juno doesn't because it's smaller than 450 km in diameter. It is 233 km in diameter.

Ceres is 950 km in diameter,and so it is by far the largest of the asteroids. It is 1/3 of the mass of the asteroid belt. Therefore, it's no wonder that it was promoted to dwarf planet.

Raymond

------------------
“It is absolutely the perfect name,” Dr. Brown said, given the continuing discord among astronomers and the public over whether Pluto should have retained its planetary status.

In mythology, Eris ignited discord that led to the Trojan War.